Ron Capps loves to race. He’s competed in NHRA in Top Fuel (1995-96) and nitro Funny Car (1997 to present). 

Capps reached the pinnacle of the sport in 2016 winning a world championship.

The last thing Capps wanted was not to race for five months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. NHRA Mello Yello Series racing is scheduled to resume July 11-12 in Indianapolis.

During this downtime, Capps has made up on lost time with his family.

“First and foremost is how much I have missed at home,” Capps said. “I have been racing pretty much my whole life and there are a lot of things I have missed, important things here and there when my kids were growing up that I couldn’t make and that’s part of the sacrifice. Every offseason, we stay pretty busy with our sponsor stuff, I know I do for sure and it is always nice to get that break and spend time at home and we usually ready to get right back it, right after winter.

“This downtime gave me a lot of time to do stuff with the kids and the family that I wouldn’t had a chance to do as much of for sure.”

Capps and his wife, Shelley, have two children, son, Caden, 19, and daughter, Taylor, 25.

“We’ve had both kids home throughout this whole time and that has been cool,” Capps said.

Capps has also spent plenty of time organizing his garage.

“My garage hasn’t been a real garage for a long time,” he said. “I’ve just never had time to really sit down and go through everything. The cool thing is we get given so many cool things from our fans throughout each year from each place we go. I have a really cool collection. You have your fans give it to you and you put it in your transporter and I will either fly home with it or a lot of times I will wait until I get to the West Coast so I can put it in someone’s car who is coming home. These things build up every year and I never get a chance to go through and hang pictures someone gave me or put things up or send out thank you notes to people. This has been fun to go through all this stuff fans have given me through the years. It has been cool.

I took a little trip today with my son Caden, and well ........#YourWelcome#TheProofIsInThePennzoil @Pennzoil | @NAPAKnowHow pic.twitter.com/9ZA0qBbHah

— Ron Capps (@RonCapps28) June 20, 2020

Through all the iRacing, and stuff I redid the garage and made it a hang out again like it used to be. It has been cool to go through all the stuff and relive it.”

Capps was quick to point out he can’t wait to get back in the cockpit of his Don Schumacher Racing NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. 

“This has been unprecedented,” Capps said about the hiatus because of COVID-19. “There’s nothing like showing up at preseason testing and warming the car up for the first time. You roll up there and that first burnout really kind of awakens your senses on how incredible 11,000 horsepower really is. There’s nothing like stepping on the gas the first time and it completely reminds you of the first time you got your license and how just unbelievable it is.

“I know there are going to be a lot of drivers in a lot of categories who haven’t been in the car who will be reacquainted with that feeling. I’m excited about driving again and a little nervous. This is really going to test everybody. Drivers who haven’t been in the car are going to have to be on their game more than ever. Everybody is going to have to be almost perfect. We only have two runs of qualifying and then we race. It is going to be pretty wild.”